Novolex’s Bagcraft launches Power Prep oil-and-grease-resistant wrap

14 Apr 2023 --- Novolex is marketing its Power Prep wrap for grab-and-go hot sandwiches and other freshly made foods. Manufactured by the Novolex brand Bagcraft, the new packaging keeps food tasting fresh as it’s wrapped, frozen, reheated and held under heat at the point of sale, according to the company.

Power Prep wrap uses non-fluorinated oil-and-grease-resistant paper laminated to a liner using a honeycomb pattern that creates an insulated layer. 

“Legacy wrap solutions in the marketplace have long tried to meet a list of needs of food service operators. Although they might have satisfied one or two needs, they typically came with trade-offs or fell short with others,”  Philip Rozenski, vice president of public and government affairs at Novolex, tells PackagingInsights. 

“These challenges led to operators compromising on quality or needing to use a combination of packaging solutions. Our Power Prep wrap is the first one to meet all of these.”

An anti-curling solution
Rozenski continues that the Power Prep wrap is designed to maintain uniform, consistent food integrity from the kitchen to the freezer, refrigerated transport, thaw and reheat on-site and then to maintain temperature under heat at point of sale. 

The multilayer wrap is more puncture-resistant than foil, providing an alternative to other packaging options.“In addition to the performance requirements, the lamination is designed for insulation and with unique anti-curling to allow flat sheeting. This provides time-savings and efficiency in the kitchen to quickly wrap and freeze products at scale,” he adds. 

Furthermore, Novolex claims the multilayer wrap is more puncture-resistant than foil, or foil and paper structure, providing an alternative to other packaging options. The wrap can be custom printed to include branding and promotional messages and is available as cut sheets in different sizes and can also be purchased as a roll. 

Catering consumer demand 
Power Prep wrap is said to be ideal for convenience stores, supermarkets and other foodservice operators, catering to the growing demand for high-quality, freshly made offerings. 

“When a national convenience store needed a new flexible packaging option for grab-and-go hot sandwiches, our innovation team developed a unique four-layer structure specifically designed to control moisture and heat,” says Tim Coulson, director of technology, paper at Novolex. 

As convenience stores and other food operators invest in central kitchens to provide more prepared grab-and-go food options, maintaining consistent quality and food integrity is critical. The Power Prep wrap protects food and performs across multiple temperature requirements.

Bagcraft food packaging products serve various foodservice, restaurant, supermarket, convenience store and bakery applications. Power Prep wrap is the latest addition to the range of innovative packaging solutions from Novolex, it says. 

Novolex in the news 
In a similar development, Novolex’s Eco-Products brand introduced a new compostable wrap for packing hot and cold food products such as snacks and sandwiches, tapping into increasing demand for environmentally sustainable products.

The wax paper wrap is ASTM D6868 compliant and certified by the Biodegradable Products Institute as compostable in commercial facilities. It can be used as a basket liner, food wrap, scale or pick-up sheet.

Last year, Novolex invested US$10 million to increase the capacity of its recycling facility in Indiana, US, to enable the recycling of plastic bags and other PE films. 

With the purchase of mechanical recycling technology, the facility can create up to 28 million lb (12 million kg) of recycled material annually to manufacture new products from post-consumer or post-industrial recycled material. The plant is one of the company’s two film recycling facilities.

By Natalie Schwertheim